"Then Jim," Porthos says, finding the strange rectangular square that turns on the screen and the player. "Or René or another of our friends who's capable with money," he murmurs, continuing to allow his fingers to move over Aramis' marks, thinking with heady pleasure that he'd helped to make these. "Or," he points out, "pushing Athos is what we're supposed to do. We never had much luck letting him be. He only drowned himself more."

"It was us being ridiculous and overbearing that got him to be our friend," he says, wiggling his hips and shoulders and smiling happily when the story begins.